In an optical fiber link, it is conventional to use an amplifying waveguide whose gain is the same for all of the channels making up the link; that is to say the amplifying waveguide presents a characteristic known as gain "flatness".
Attempts have therefore been made to regulate the amplifying waveguide by inserting an optical isolator and/or filter in the amplifying waveguide. Unfortunately, various problems are encountered, such as weld losses and intrinsic loss of power due to the optical isolator.
Another solution, which constitutes the subject matter of our French patent application No. 94/00321, consists in inserting an optical coupler at the inlet to the amplifying waveguide in such a manner as to control the level at which amplified light is emitted by means of regulation light constituted by backward amplified spontaneous emission propagating in the direction opposite to the forward direction of the light in the optical fiber. That method nevertheless suffers from the problem of introducing power loss and above all the servo-control regulates power in the reverse direction and that is not necessarily an accurate image of the power in the forward direction.